Smarty Games and Others

On Free Technology For Teachers there was another post that included comments about a website for kids called Smarty Games, as well as some other sites that are good for kids. I am intrigued by Smarty Games because it is for kids at various elementary levels and includes games in both math and reading, as well as stories to read.

Smart Bean - Resources for Parents

I was reading a blog on Free Technology for Teachers and I just read about this website called Smart Bean - Resources for Parents that is an online magazine for parents that focuses on using online resources for learning, as well as just basic parenting ideas. I am always looking for good references for parents to put on my website, so I will definitely include this one!

Another K Activity Site

This post from the same blog that I just mentioned also has a great website for Kindergartners. There are a variety of activities that practice a wide spectrum of skills for students. They are also very colorful and appealing to kids!

http://www.classroom20.com/xn/detail/649749:Comment:339313

K Activity Sites

A blog called Technology in Kindergarten--Classroom 2.0 has shown me some interesting things, and I found that this post has some great websites that kindergarten students can use themselves. I'm always looking for new websites that are kid-friendly, so I will definitely look into these!

http://www.classroom20.com/xn/detail/649749:Comment:336248

Blogging Mistakes

I found this blog helpful on Edublogger. It gives the top 5 mistakes new bloggers make and how to fix those mistakes! I'm starring it so I can reference it often because I know I'll be making them. :o)

http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/2009/06/27/here%e2%80%99s-my-top-five-mistakes-made-by-new-bloggers-%e2%80%94-what-are-yours/

Spelling City

I just found a website that I am really excited to use next year to help my students learn sight words! It's www.spellingcity.com, and I can put all the sight words that I have introduced in class on it. Parents and students can go on and find the list to practice or play games to learn the words, as well as take tests to see if they know them. My students would definitely be excited to practice their sight words if there was a game involved at home!

This is the first blog I've truly created. I started one through our school's website creator program and linked it to my website, but it never really took off, meaning I never really did anything with it. The purpose of it was for me to make requests of parents and let them respond if they could help so that everyone would know that the role has been filled. It didn't work so well.

I am excited to start using blogs in my classroom, and I am trying to think of how it could work with Kindergartners. My thought right now is to have the class come up with a question they want to ask parents each week and posting it, so we can see and read parent responses together.

I have a website already, but I would like it to be more interactive, letting parents comment or ask questions through the website instead of just emailing me about things. I would also like to try to be more paperless--right now I send home a newsletter each week as well as post it to my website, but it would be great if I could post it in a blog that would alert parents to read it instead of trusting that they go to my website each week to read it. That way I could eliminate the need of sending a paper one home (at least to students whose parents have internet at home).